


cross my heart (and hope to die)

by h0lyheck



Series: get a kick out of it [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Phone Calls, Soccer, donghyuck didn't make mark up he promises, donghyuck is doing his best, jisung and jaemin are terrible friends, mark is perfect and we all know it, mentioned chenle and jeno, scheming boyfriends, some texting but not formatted like a texting au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 04:59:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14253534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h0lyheck/pseuds/h0lyheck
Summary: On the day that Donghyuck finally, finally works up the courage to tell his friends he has a boyfriend, Jisung falls off of the couch.(Donghyuck's friends don't believe that he's finally found someone, no matter what he says.)





	cross my heart (and hope to die)

**Author's Note:**

> HOO BOY HERE WE GO.  
> I wrote this from approximately 4:30 to 7:30 AM with much procrastination and a short break to watch a vlive, and it's unbetaed and not reread, so feel free to point out any mistakes! this is also my first nct fic (as well as fic in general) and I haven't been around here long, so please excuse any off characterization as I haven't familiarized myself with the dreamies yet!  
> I promised myself I would never write fanfiction haha but please remember I am making the distinction that these are not the real people! these are characters based on the people and shipping is fine when you can realize that (I like markhyuck's fanon dynamic but I've barely seen them interact irl, for perspective) but please never take it too far tyty  
> please enjoy and do tell me what you think!

On the day that Donghyuck finally, _finally_ works up the courage to tell his friends he has a boyfriend, Jisung falls off of the couch.

“Dude, what?” Jisung asks incredulously after releasing an impressive string of expletives. In the armchair across the room, Jaemin sits in stunned silence.

“Yeah,” Donghyuck affirms, “I know.” He’s still in shock too, frankly. His wardrobe is, as Jaemin so kindly puts it, “the most unfortunate, extensive collection of stripes to ever exist on this fine Earth”, and his looks have never been much to swoon over, but apparently that didn’t scream Boy Repellent as much as Donghyuck had previously thought.

Jisung pops back up onto the couch. He glares at the coffee table corner that nicked his side (his gaze is so full of contempt that, under any other circumstance, Donghyuck would’ve died laughing) and sits on his hands, leaning towards Donghyuck expectantly. “Well?”

“Is he hot?” Jaemin pipes up from his seat. Donghyuck sighs in relief when he sees that his friend has unfrozen. Last time, it took almost eighteen minutes. “Please tell me he’s hot. It’ll be so fun watching Jisung mess with if you get flustered every other sentence.”

Jaemin’s never been one for sugar-coating things, Donghyuck knows this; still, he can’t help but feel a little affronted. He turns to Jisung, knowing all hope he has left is resting on the youngest’s shoulders.

“Hyuck could never date someone hot,” come the deciding words. “He’s got too much of a complex.”

_Well,_ Donghyuck resolves, _time to find new friends._ He wonders if his boyfriend would be willing to share.

-

“So!” Jisung exclaims, swinging down from the top bunk of Jaemin’s bunk bed, legs hooked on the railing. Donghyuck shrieks and launches himself backwards, his skull meeting the wall with a loud thunk.

Jaemin doesn’t look up from his graphic novel. “Don’t mess up the plaster.”

“I was thinking,” Jisung continues, as if there had been no interruption, “you never told us anything about your mystery boy. Shouldn’t we at least know his name?” He pauses. “Is it Jeno? I bet it’s Jeno.”

“It had better not be Jeno.”

“Get over yourself, Nana. It’s never gonna happen if you don’t even talk to him.”

“Okay, mister “Chenle is a god and I am but a mortal who doesn’t even deserve to be in his presence”, whatever you say.”

“Well, it’s not as if it isn’t _true_ -“

“Shut up!” Donghyuck finally yells. “It’s not Jeno, and both of you are idiots.”

Jaemin visibly relaxes, and Jisung doesn’t even pause before responding, “Takes one to know one. Anyway, mystery boyfriend. Give me a name.”

Sighing, and still rubbing the poor back of his head, Donghyuck answers, “Mark. Mark Lee.”

Jisung frowns. His brow scrunches. “We don’t have a Mar-“

“He goes to the high school across town.” Donghyuck lays back onto the pillows. “You don’t know him. Stop hanging upside down, your brain is messed up enough as it is.”

Jaemin looks up to see if Jisung really is still suspended above-ground, fixes his fake glasses (“They’re fashionable,” he had reasoned when he first saw Donghyuck’s disgusted confusion, but Donghyuck still thinks they’re ridiculous), and looks back down, uninterested. Jisung untangles himself from the higher bed and jumps down to its neighbor, plopping down next to Donghyuck and studying the older boy’s face.

Donghyuck watches with mild horror as the confused look on his friend’s face morphs into a conspiratorial smirk. “What.”

“You know, Hyukkie,” Jisung muses, a teasing lilt to his voice, “we won’t judge you for being single. You don’t have to make up a boyfriend. We love you anyway.”

Donghyuck sputters in disbelief. “I- what, _you guys_ are single. Why would I- I wouldn’t make that up!”

“Okay, sweetie,” Jisung coos with a voice that makes it very clear to Donghyuck that _nothing in this situation is okay_. “We believe you. Jaemin!”

“Huh?” Jaemin is now watching the pair intently, and reaches up to fix his glasses again. Donghyuck resists the urge to walk over and knock them off his face.

“Agree with me.”

“Donghyuck, stop lying about this boy. We love you or whatever.”

“I’m not lying!” Donghyuck feels a little silly throwing this half-tantrum, but this was not the reaction he expected. “His name is Mark and he’s very sweet and we met because I gushed about his winning goal at the last soccer game without realizing he was the person I was talking to.”

Even Jaemin cracks a disbelieving smile at that. “Sounds a little too much like a Disney movie for me to believe, Donghyuck.”

“Shut up,” Donghyuck pouts. “I liked you better when you were happier. What happened to the bubbly Jaemin I loved to tolerate?”

“Jeno happened,” Jisung responds before Jaemin can get a word out. “He thinks he’d prefer the quiet bookworm type. The boy is whipped.”

Jaemin doesn’t respond, instead opting to chuck his hardcover comic (hardcover comic? Who even spends money on those?) at Jisung. It hits Donghyuck just below the eye. He squawks.

-

In the middle of a particularly boring English class, Donghyuck’s phone buzzes. He immediately stiffens, but relaxes quickly after, not wanting his classmates or teacher to notice that he forgot to flip his phone to silent mode. Thankfully, the other inhabitants of the room seem invested in whatever based-on-the-book movie they’re currently studying. Quietly pulling out his phone, he sees the notification of a text from _Mark <3_ and stifles a grin.

It’s a photo, one of his boyfriend standing in his school’s courtyard- for class, Donghyuck assumes, as Mark probably doesn’t even know what breaking the rules is. He’s holding a peace sign up to his eye, his other arm outstretched to take the photo. His smile is genuine, and his eyes are happy. Donghyuck wants to die.

_Miss you :)_ , the accompanying text reads, _come to my game tonight?_ He’s used the dreaded passive-aggressive smiley, but Donghyuck knows he means well, and besides, he’s far too in-like to hold something like Mark’s lacking texting knowledge against him.

_can’t tonight,_ he’s forced to respond, cursing the powers that be for making singing lessons conflict with soccer games so strangely often, _but call me afterwards! miss you too xx._

Yes, he sent kisses. He hears Jisung laughing in his head, Jaemin shaking his head disapprovingly beside him, and mentally tells them to screw off.

Less than a minute later, the response comes. _You got it! I’ll call around eight?_ He even texts perfectly. Donghyuck can’t fathom how he ended up with this flawless boy, and sends his affirmation before leaving his phone facedown on the desk.

It buzzes again. Picking up the device, Donghyuck can’t help but squeak a little at the heart Mark sends his way. The girl seated next to him glares, clearly annoyed by the continuous disturbance. If looks could kill, Donghyuck’s relationship status wouldn’t matter, because his life status would be deceased.

He makes sure to silence his phone this time.

-

As soon as school lets out for the day, Donghyuck sends a screenshot of Mark’s initial photo and message to Jisung and Jaemin in their group chat. He leaves out his own text-kisses and everything following, because they by no means have to know about that.

_your catfish has good photos,_ comes Jaemin’s near-instantaneous response. Donghyuck rolls his eyes and shoots back an _I met him in real life, idiot._

Jaemin’s subsequent eye emoji spam and _okay liar. keeping an eye on u_ is far from satisfying.

Hours later, after Jisung’s unsurprising agreement and Donghyuck’s loss of will to continue protesting, the latter sits atop his bed, staring at his phone’s clock. He watches the time tick to 7:59, wondering when Mark’s call would arrive. He had said around eight, not necessarily _at_ , so Donghyuck decides it will be reasonable enough to wait until fifteen minutes pass before giving up and calling the boy himself, and until then he would just have to-

The clock says 8:00. Donghyuck’s phone rings.

He waits until three rings have passed-he may be desperate, but he doesn’t have to act it-and picks up. “Hello?”

_“Hey,”_ comes Mark’s voice through the speaker, and Donghyuck can hear the smile in his voice without even having to listen to it, he’s going to cry, _“How are you, Hyuck?”_

The nickname sounds different when Mark says it. It’s nice. Donghyuck wants to record it and play it on loop for the rest of his life.

“Better now that you called.” What. Donghyuck wants to slap himself, wonders who this boy thinks he is to turn him into a cheesy idiot like this, but then soft laughter comes from the receiver and everything’s okay.

_“I’m glad.”_ He’s so earnest and sweet and they’ve only spoken twelve words to each other during this call but Donghyuck is ready to squeeze the life out of his adorable, perfect boyfriend and also maybe die. _“Did you figure out the thing that was messing you up in Calc?”_

Donghyuck had only mentioned that in passing last week when they last saw each other. Before Mark had sent him help, he hadn’t even realized that he had heard him. Donghyuck's heart had fluttered just a little bit. “I did. Thanks for sending your notes, you helped tons. Also, you have the best handwriting I’ve ever seen.”

Another chuckle. Donghyuck takes each laugh he earns from the beautiful boy on the other end of the phone and treats it like a prized trophy, holds it close and stores it securely. _“You’re the sweetest, honestly. I’m lucky to have you,”_ Donghyuck thinks it’s the other way around, _“the past month has been the best one of my life.”_

“Mine, too.” Donghyuck hopes the little squeal that was wrenched out of him was inaudible, but his luck begins and ends with Mark, so he’s not too hopeful. “Tell me about your game! How many goals did you score? The team?”

_“The team got four. Opponents got two,”_ Mark is clearly trying not to sound too proud of this, but of course Donghyuck knows he’s incredibly excited to have won against their current biggest competition. Mark’s unreasonably insecure about himself; he seems to think that he does only the bare minimum and that doing any worse would be letting the world down. Donghyuck, of course, knows otherwise, and hopes to anyone who’s listening that he can help Mark know, too. _“I… well, everyone helped a ton with all of the goals, despite who actually shot them, and I think credit should go to everyon-“_

“Mark.”

_“…I got all four.”_

Donghyuck cheers, despite the fact that he was already confident in that, and, before he forgets, blurts out, “My friends don’t believe you exist.”

A pause. _“What?”_

“My friends. Jaemin and Jisung. I’ve told you about them.” Mark hums his agreement. “They think I made you up. Say I couldn’t possibly have scored someone who looks like the pictures I’ve shown and acts like I say you do.”

_“You’re serious?”_ Mark asks, then laughs. _“That’s hilarious. If anything, it’s the other way around. I mean, you’re… you.”_

Donghyuck is about to protest, because _absolutely not_ , Mark is not the lucky one in this relationship, the volunteer is not indebted to the charity case, but Mark interrupts his train of thought with a quiet, _“I have an idea.”_

Mark has an idea. This is very important. Donghyuck vows to shower Mark’s idea with nothing but praise, and maybe the kindest phrasing of constructive criticism, if need be. “I’m listening.” 

-

“Donghyuck, can we just go now?”

The boy in question ignores Jisung’s whines, and sends a grateful glance to Jaemin, who’s placating him to the best of his ability. He continues searching for his book in the library shelves, though he knows it’s not there. He checked the catalogue the day before just to ensure that there were no copies within the school’s book stores.

“Sorry, Sungie,” he frowns, though he’s not very sorry at all. The kid deserves it, after all the trauma he puts his friends through. If Donghyuck was woken up by one more existential crisis in text form at three in the morning, he was going to blow a fuse. His phone lights up in his hand. A text from Mark. _Go time._

“Guess it’s not here,” Donghyuck shrugs, ignoring Jisung’s cry of _“You said getting this book was urgent, Hyuck!”_ and Jaemin’s _“Shut up, Jisung, you called Chenle being absent for a day a national emergency”_ in favor of walking to the school’s parking lot.

There Mark is in all his glory, leaning against a lamppost in the center of the lot. It’s nearly deserted- Donghyuck had spent ages searching for the book he knew to be absent. Thank goodness his friends hadn’t had the foresight or kindness to check the listings for him. They make eye contact for a split second, and Mark shoots Donghyuck a smile that turns his knees to jelly before looking back down at his phone, waiting for Donghyuck’s friends to make their way out of the school.

Once Donghyuck’s faithful sidekicks have made their appearance, now bickering about the best character of some nineties sitcom, Donghyuck once again meets the gaze of his boyfriend. Mark’s eyes are shining, and Donghyuck realizes that it’s simply because the boy is so happy to see him. He wonders how the angel in front of him hasn’t killed him yet.

Mark jogs over, only catching the attention of Jaemin and Jisung when he’s within a few feet. Jisung does a double take.

“You’re- that’s- no way,” he stammers, tugging on Jaemin’s sleeve. The older boy looks on in surprise, but says nothing.

As he gets close to Donghyuck, Mark slows, and Donghyuck can feel his boyfriend’s breath on his face. It smells like mint.

“Hi,” he says.

“Hi,” Mark responds, and pulls him in for a kiss.

It’s chaste, only lasting a few seconds, but Donghyuck can hear Jaemin’s exhaled _holy god_ and Jisung’s brain-to-mouth system’s catastrophic failure. A mix of half-profanities, odd sounds, and words of disbelief shoot from the youngest’s mouth. When Mark pulls away, he’s grinning. Donghyuck belatedly realizes that he is, too.

After a moment of staring into each other’s eyes ( _like idiots_ , his brain helpfully supplies, before Donghyuck reminds it that angels simply cannot be idiots), Mark turns to Donghyuck’s friends. “I’m Mark,” he smiles, and Donghyuck nearly laughs when he sees Jaemin understand the full force of that grin. “It’s super nice to meet you. Hyuck’s told me tons about you.”

Jaemin shakes his head rapidly to snap himself out of his beam-induced stupor. He smiles back- no one can resist returning a smile to Mark, Donghyuck has seen this proven and proven it himself on many occasions- and takes Mark’s offered hand, shaking it firmly. After letting go, he looks at Jaemin, who is still gaping like a fish, and waves his limp hand with his own.

Mark lets out a laugh. God, that _laugh_. Donghyuck’s heard it in person before, but it’s been a little over a week and it’s immensely better in person than over the phone. Here’s Mark, a kind, sweet, incredibly attractive boy, and he’s with Donghyuck, because apparently he sees in him what Donghyuck sees in Mark. Donghyuck privately hopes that one day, he’ll see those positive traits in himself, and that he can help Mark do the same.

For now, he’s content with slinging his arm around Mark’s waist after his “Come on, I’ll walk you home” and that trademark smile, thinking that, for now, each of them having the other to tell them these wonderful things about themselves is enough. He knows they’re true for Mark, so they’re true for him.

-

When Donghyuck finds out two weeks later that Chenle and Jeno are Mark’s childhood friends and that they still keep in touch, he does nothing- or, at least, nothing that the newly-taken Jisung and Jaemin can prove.

**Author's Note:**

> all feedback is appreciated, whether it comes in the form of kudos or lengthy, wordy hate mail! though I'd prefer the former, in the event of aforementioned hate mail, please cite the reasons behind the hating haha. thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


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